Léargas

     Last night the Dáil concluded a two day debate on a Sinn Féin motion calling for recognition of a Palestinian state.   This means that both houses of the Oireachtas now support the right of the Palestinian people to self-determination; recognise a Palestinian state, and endorse the right of the Palestinian people to independence and sovereignty. This is a substantial and positive development which means that Ireland is now a significant part of the consensus for peace and progress in the Middle East. It also means that Irish people are standing with progressive Israeli opinion which wants a lasting peace arrangement and supports the recognition of a Palestinian state. The passing of this motion, in conjunction with the passing of similar motions in Parliaments across the EU, is an important act of solidarity with the Palestinian people. The dangers and the tensions in that tragic situation were underlined with the sad news yesterday of t...

As you read this I will be in the Middle East. The purpose of the visit is to meet key players in the region, and to receive first hand information about the current conditions there. I have an invitation from UNWRA, the United Nations agency which provides aid to the Palestinian people, to visit Gaza but as yet have no word on whether that the Israeli government will permit this. On Thursday I will be meeting with President Abbas of the Palestinian Authority in Ramallah and with Israeli Labour leader Issac Herzog in Tel Aviv. I will write more on this next week. The enormity of the violence and of the resulting humanitarian crisis in Syria and Iraq, and the impact of the growth of Islamic State, have all dominated the news agenda of recent time. They have also grabbed the attention of the international community. For a brief period in the summer the decades long conflict involving the Palestinians and the Israelis replaced those headlines with images of huge explosions in...

Some unionists have seized upon my remarks in Fermanagh when I described bigots as b****rds. My use of that word was inappropriate. Some of have said that I was speaking about unionists. I wasn’t. Although, some bigots are unionists. But they have no monopoly on bigotry. The Impartial Reporter, journalist Rodney Edwards has released the full transcript of my remarks. I thank him for that. Those who wish to can now make a balanced judgement on my remarks. Apart from the use of the B word I stand over the thrust of what I was articulating. As I told the audience in Enniskillen republicanism is essentially about citizenship; about the rights of people and their entitlements in a citizen centred rights-based society. Essentially this means that regardless of peoples abilities or disabilities; regardless of their gender or sexual orientation; regardless of their creed or colour; regardless of whether they live in rural Ireland or in urban centres; their rights must be upheld and soci...

Hysteria is defined as an extreme emotion which cannot be controlled. A person so afflicted is described as hysterical.  And we often describe things as hysterically funny. The latest round in the long-running anti-Sinn Féin crusade by Independent newspapers is hysterical in both senses. The editorial staff of the Sunday Independent, in particular, seem to have lost their reason with their weekly frenzied attacks on me personally and on Sinn Féin and republicans in general. And the attempt to portray part of my response to all this as an implied threat to journalists is laughable. It is ludicrous. I simply pointed out that the IRA under Michael Collins, whose political legacy is claimed by many of Sinn Féin’s worst detractors, attacked the office of the Irish Independent and destroyed the printing presses. I was pointing to the hypocrisy and inconsistency of a view that portrays the IRA of 1919 as freedom fighters but labels the IRA of 1979 as terrorists. S...

Last week Mary Lou McDonald took Tánaiste Joan Burton to task during Leaders questions in the Dáil over the government’s failure to resolve the crisis in Irish Water; the continuing debacle around water charges, and the need for a constitutional referendum to protect the state’s water utility from privatisation.   Predictably, the Labour leader when faced with a difficult question always opts to create a distraction. In this case she raised my visit that day to New York for three days of meetings with Irish America, including the annual Friends of Sinn Féin fundraiser.   There was something pitiable and pathetic in Ms Burton’s remarks which smacked of begrudgery and envy.   There was a time when Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael travelled the world in search of funding for their respective parties among the Irish diaspora. It was never about ending division or partition or Irish independence. Both parties wrapped the green flag around them as they posed as unite...

Last Saturday was the anniversary of the execution by the British of 18 year old Kevin Barry. He was hanged on November 1st 1920. Kevin Barry was one of the ‘Forgotten Ten’ – IRA volunteers who were all executed in Mountjoy prison and buried there by the British Government. . He and nine other freedom fighters were afforded a State Funeral a few years ago when their remains were moved from Mountjoy to Glasnevin. I was there that day and more important than all the pomp and ceremony of the fitting state occasion was the huge turn out of citizens who lined the pavements and joined the funeral ceremony. Kevin Barry was a victim and a hero of the Tan War – a conflict that lasted two years and was followed by a bloody civil war which saw atrocities committed by both sides. His life and death and role as an IRA Volunteer was immortalised in song shortly after his death. ‘Kevin Barry’ became one of the most popular rebel songs of that and subsequent generations. I remind ...

Certain media commentators have recently made an issue of the fact that some time ago, I tweeted Maya Angelou’s poem Still I Rise .   They seem not to have the slightest appreciation of the nature of social media, the role of literature in society or indeed the character of the author who has incited their censorial righteousness.   In an incredible leap of imagination they have deemed my tweet insensitive.   This, because in their own fevered minds they have contrived a link between my tweet and other unrelated issues.   In this case it is the fact that some political opponents of Sinn Féin have made spurious allegations of a ‘republican cover-up’ of rape.   But in their zeal to propagate a vile smear against me and against Sinn Fein, these modern-day McCarthyites in the media have merely exposed their own ignorance and frightening intolerance.   Maya Angelou, who died last May, was an award-winning feminist aut...